Friends who run are also friends who drink beer

5^th June

Back to more mundane bread and butter stuff this week. Had a nice lie in bed.  Up and  out the door by 10 am. Did 5 miles at 10.30 pace.52 mins and something. Heart rate slightly high for a recovery effort-125. I was pondering my performance in the last 3 miles of the half marathon yesterday. It definitely cost me a minute in my time. Something to consider in the future. I won’t be doing any more half marathon races until September. I have targeted the St Finbarr’s “Blarney” Cork half marathon and of course the Charleville half marathon. Will be looking for a sub 1.35 in those and they will also be useful races in the lead up to the Dublin Marathon. A long way to go though. I did ring one my buddies just reminding him with 20 weeks to go to the Dublin marathon it might be a good time to start on a training schedule. I don’t know if he appreciated it!!!!

5 miles at 10.30 pace. Average heart rate 125 Bpm

6^th June

Went out the house at 3.00 pm. I was wearing long sleeved running shirt (my Dublin marathon 2011 shirt – no less), a yellow waterproof top and a white hat. I was anticipating heavy showers but after 1.5 miles the sweat was rolling out of me. Had to double back to the house and take off the hat and waterproofs before resuming my run. By mile 4 down the railway rd the heavens opened up but the heat was still there.I was actually enjoying the running in rain jumping over puddles and sidestepping vehicle splashes and the like. Headed down the back of the empty Campus garage and then onto a lovely quiet stretch onto Rathgoggin Lower and down towards Ballyhea GAA pitch before turning right onto Pike cross and onto the Cork Rd back up to Charleville diverting off at Newline and finishing by the pitch and putt club. That was 9 miles in total and I did it at a fair pace. The last 3 miles were all under 7.30 pace. The first 2 miles were slow 8.00 and 8.20 but things picked up after that. These “medium” runs are meant to peak at 15 miles according to the schedule and are to be done midweek. By jingo the y are tough- they will either make me or break me. What does worry me is that I am expected to be able 26.2 miles at this pace in October!!!!! Had a mile left to walk home. Walked for 3 minutes noticing the heart rate dropping to 120 BPM. Then decided to do 7 X 0.1 mile strides with 25 second walking break between each one. A satisfying workout

6^th July 2012 – 9 miles in 1.09.18. Average pace 7.42 . Average heart rate 156 BPM (a bit high). 7 X 0.1 strides

Total mileage 9.7 miles

7^th July

Was up and out the door by 6.45 am. This time I knew there was no chance of getting away without a hat and waterproof zip top. Good young Jean Byrne left the nation in no doubt as to what to expect today and she wasn’t wrong. While it was bucketing down it wasn’t too windy and so off I went. I wasn’t too sure what exactly I was supposed to be doing today. I knew I had to do 7 miles but was it one mile warm up with 3X1 interval miles followed by 3jog home or was it a 4 mile tempo run with 3 mile jog home or a 1 mile warm up with 4 miles tempo and 2 mile jog home? Problem was I didn’t know what the best thing was to do. Not deciding what you are doing before you are going out the door is a classic running error and I fell for it. I ran the first mile in 7.15 and then decided to keep going. Mile 2 6.54, Mile 3 7.28, Mile 4 7.19, Mile 5 7.32. Not bad times for me by any stretch but compared to previous speed workouts they were neither good interval times or good tempo times.A case of neither fish nor fowl. Anyway the wind had picked up considerably and the rain was making visibility difficult. The hat, ziptop, shorts and trainers were soaked through by mile 5 and the legs were turning to cement. Jogged the last  2 miles in 8.55 and 8.43 pace – glad to have it over and a valuable lesson learned. Need to have my mind more with it next time.

Total mileage 7 miles. First 5 miles in 36.28 (7.17 pace) and last two in 8.55 and 8.43 pace.

9^th June

Rested well. Headed to bed at 10.15 Friday night and was up and out the door by 7.15 am the next day. Once I woke up at 7.00 am i knew there was no point in staying in bed any further. I do like to get the long run completed by 11 in the morning. I had it in my head to do at least 10 miles and if I felt ok to see if i could make to 12 miles and then take it from there minding the fact i had raced 13.1 miles on the Monday. Picked a really boring route around Charleville which involved lots of back and forth stretches but which had the advantage of being never further than 3 miles from the house at any one time. It also involved lots of pulls and a few hills. By mile ten I was taking it pretty handy doing around 9 minutes a mile, the heart rate looked ok enough too. At the bottom of the railway road I was feeling a bit parched so I  popped into the railway station to take a quick gulp of water from the taps. What the people getting onto the train made of me I have no idea!!! Anyway this perked me up and I plodded along at a nice relaxed  pace. At mile 11 I figured why not and did another 3 miles – again at a slow leisurely pace. Met my wife on the way out she was off doing her exercise thing. A very solid effort at 14 miles. This was faster than the same distance 2 weeks ago with a lower heart rate. Mind you it was very cool today and very hot back then. Onto Cork tonight and a friends 40^th party. Might do 3 recovery to-morrow and get 50 miles up on the legs this week.

9^th June 14 miles , 2.06.09. Average pace 9.01. Heart rate 143 BPM

10^th June

Had a very good night last night at Aidan’s 40^th. It was amazzing the number of friends who have taken up running - myself, Aidan, Don, Dermot, Annette, Therese, David Hackett  have all run various races lately. Kieran Doyle and Riobard come to mind as well  as does Denis Connolly.Tim is doing the ring of Kerry cycle race next month. Another mate Jack is talking about starting up the running too while Aidan's brother James was a college runner in Texas University and is a coach with Leevale. My cousin Don Ryan is after completing his third marathon.

 Still sweating the Heineken out of my pores as I type this. Didn’t really have to go running either but wanted to rack up 50 miles for the week. Mission accomplished. 3.1 miles at around ten minutepace. Sets me up for the week.

Monday 13.1 miles, Tuesday 5 miles, Wednesday 9.7 miles, Thursday 7 miles, Friday rest, Saturday 14 miles, Sunday 3.1 miles. 51.8 miles.